August 05, 2025 10:57 AM UTC

What The Gabe Evans Primary Grumbling Really Means

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• by: Colorado Pols

We don’t normally find much credible to cite over at the conservative website Complete Colorado, once colloquially known as Colorado Drudge before the world forgot who Matt Drudge ever was, but a story from the weekend by right-wing paid poison pen Sherrie Peif did catch our attention–a piece ostensibly reporting on, but without much subtlety trying to downplay the possibility of a primary challenge against America’s Most Vulnerable Incumbent™ Rep. Gabe Evans:

Darcy Schoening, who acted as “Director of Special Initiatives” under former Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams has been drumming up support on the social platform Signal for a primary opponent against 8th Congressional District incumbent Gabe Evans, throwing out the names of at least two Republicans as contenders.

In a thread on July 20 Schoening, who lost a recent bid to become state party chair, wrote: “Poll for CD8: John Fabricatore [sic-Pols] or Adam DeRito? Respond with your choice. This is not a hypothetical question, and your response is necessary…I am demonstrating a point. Important to respond. Who can beat Gabe? Answer honestly what’s the best choice here?”

Fabricatore is a former U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent. He also unsuccessfully ran for Congressional District 6 in 2024, losing to Rep. Jason Crow by about 70,000 votes. He does not currently reside in CD-8.

Our understanding is that Weld County Republican Adam DeRito is a distraction, and Peif herself reports that he’s not interested. The possibility of career ICE agent John Fabbricatore, who ran and lost heavily in 2024 to CO-06 incumbent Rep. Jason Crow, running against Evans is a more interesting prospect. There is a rumor we’ve heard separately from this reporting that Fabbricatore may indeed be interested in running against Evans, but only if he were to receive clearance to do so from national GOP leadership. There does appear to be significant dissatisfaction with Evans among MAGA hardliners over Evans’ “double dealing” on the immigration issue, from Evans’ “letters to Santa” over ICE targeting non-criminal migrants to Evans’ support for the Dignity Act–despite the latter having little chance of passage and Evans’ vote for hundreds of billions to supercharge ICE in the federal budget bill. As Norm Ornstein told the Colorado Times Recorder last month:

The stories of vicious actions by masked ICE operatives, American citizens being abducted, people dragged out of cars, and more, have created a very different climate. For Republicans in swing districts, finding a way to get some distance from these actions is a political imperative. But you can’t at the same time alienate your base. So Evans is trying to have it both ways.

If you asked us to bet our last dollar, we would probably say that Fabbricatore will not get the green light from national Republicans to imperil the nation’s most vulnerable incumbent–who despite his occasional moments off-script has delivered the votes that the Trump administration needed. The real story here is the lack of support for Evans among base Republicans, after trying to shirk accountability for his votes with meaningless gestures the other way. Overall, Evans has chosen to closely brand himself with Trump in ways that don’t make sense in his swing district. At the same time, Evans’ “gangsters not grandmas” feint has not only been subverted by the administration’s actions, to the Republican base it comes across as weakness.

It’s a recipe for ending your career as a politician who pleases nobody.